Volunteers Make Everything Great

Attending WordCamp Chicago and wish you could be more involved than the average attendee? Volunteers — whether you’re signing on to be responsible for a whole area of event operations or pitching in for an hour or two — are the foundation of every WordCamp, and volunteering is a great way to meet more of the community and give something back.

There are a variety of volunteer opportunities, each with different time commitments, experience requirements, and logistics. There are two requirements for ALL volunteers, regardless of the job or duration: be reliable and be friendly. 🙂

Look over the list to see if anything strikes a chord, then if you’d like to volunteer, fill out the volunteer application form to express your interest in volunteering. Our volunteer coordinator will get back to you closer to the event with where you fit in to the overall volunteer schedule.

Registration – Check in registered attendees and hand out name tags. Being really awesome with alphabetical order helps here.

Happiness Bar (formerly called Genius Bar) – Answer questions and help WordPress users fix problems with their sites. Must be able to show level of expertise to be selected for this gig.

Emcees – Introduce speakers/sessions and keep things running on time. Keep an eye on the clock and give speakers a heads up when they are down to 10 and 5 minutes, and let them know when their time is up. Brevity and wit a must.

Room Runners – Work with the emcees, video people, speakers, and everyone else working in the room to keep things running smoothly. Make sure there’s water for speakers, and provide support as needed for other event staff.

Casual Runners – Unexpected things always happen at events. It’s good to have a handful of people on hand to help take care of whatever crops up.

Setup – Helping to get badges ready, shirts organized, carrying things, etc.

Cleanup – Making sure we don’t leave a trace at DePaul after the event.

Event Help Desk – Be ready for questions from “where is the washroom” to “where is lunch” to “I lost my pen”.

So if you’d like to volunteer, fill in the form and let us know!

The volunteer coordinator will review applications each day to figure out when/where you’d fit best in the schedule. Expect an email or phone call from her to confirm your interest and determine when it makes sense for you to volunteer your time. Thanks!